Search - Voyage of the Damned on DVD

An abominable mess of a transfer! Cut, and Pan and Scan

irwinallenfan | 04/30/2009

(1 out of 5 stars)

"DO NOT BUY AT ANY COST!



The movie is excellent, but this DVD is one of the worst I've ever seen.



All I can say is Lionsgate truly deserves to go out of business... There are no fewer than FOUR fatal things wrong with this release:



1. A cut 158 minute print

2. A Dual sided DVD with a 2 1/2 hour feature only 4.8 GB out of 8.5 GB available, which results in an abominable average bitrate of 4.21 Mbits/sec... The whole transfer is a soft, muddled mess, riddled with compression artifacts.

3. NO EXTRAS

4. Pan and Scan which isn't even an open-matte transfer! Adding even more insult, the END CREDITS are PROPERLY LETTERBOXED in the OAR of 1.85:1!!



DIE, Lionsgate, just DIE now, please."

Beware

a movie fan | Orangevale, CA USA | 03/04/2009

(1 out of 5 stars)

"There seem to be multiple versions of this film, perhaps due to its length. I've always wanted to view an intact version, but this obviously isn't it. For some reason, Lion's Gate, which used to be a fairly reliable DVD producer, has taken it into their collective stupidity to release their films in full screen. What are planning next...video tape?"

JUDEN IST VERBOTEN..!!

masonx | 06/04/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The ill fated voyage of the SS.St Louis has long passed into folk lore as one of the nazi propaganda machines more devious creations. All courtesy of Dr Joseph Goebbels. Briefly the idea was to allow a specially selected group of some 900 jewish refugees to leave Germany ostensibly to Cuba and then wait for the fallout when their visas were refused entry first by Cuba then the US, Canada and other so-called 'democratic' countries. The reasons given for refusal were couched in political jargon but the underlying translation was, 'sorry but we dont want to be overrun by thousands of jewish migrants, take your problems elsewhere'. Juden ist verboten !. The nazis would chomp with glee at these actions which would of course support their aryan theories that the jews were a race apart, and that the policies of other nations were indeed no different from Hitlers germany. Sad to say the plan worked all too successfully.The star studded cast here give mixed portrayals of a cross section of the ships passengers. They are led by Oskar Werner and Faye Dunaway as Egon & Denise Kreisler. Max von Sydow gives an understated performance as the beleaguered ships captain, determined to stay neutral and non-political despite being caught in the middle of some diplomatic pointscoring. After the war his courage and bravery is honoured by world jewish congress. Lee Grant tends to overact her role but unforgettable is James Mason as Remos, the incorruptible foreign minister determined to save two young girls following a personal appeal by their father to a certain influential high class prostitute. Played superbly by Katherine Ross her parents are also on the ship and their is a brief but tearful reunion scene as the mother realises her daughters true profession. But this is just one story of many. No doubt the story is full of historical inaccuracies and the purists will howl at this but for all that it is still a watchable film re-enacting one of the more shameful episodes of WWII not entirely of the nazis own making."

WHY NOT IN WIDE SCREEN

Charles W. Marshall | NEW YORK CITY | 03/03/2009

(2 out of 5 stars)

"THIS IS A VERY GOOD MOVIE BASED ON A GREAT BOOK OF THE SAME TITLE,BUT

WHY IS THIS DISC NOT IN 1:85:1 WIDESCREEN INSTEAD OF PAN AND SCAN??

ALSO THERE IS A 182 MINUTE VERSION OF THIS FILM WHICH WAS RELEASED

ON VHS TAPE - WHERE IS ALL THIS EXTRA FOOTAGE?? THIS DISC EARNS ONLY

2 STARS - THE MOVIE REALLY DESERVES 4 STARS FOR QUALITY"